1.0RESEARCH BACKGROUND
1.1INTRODUCTION
The term “fund accounting” is as old as the world itself. The origin of fund accounting could be traced to the parable of talents in the holy Bible (Mathew 25: 14-30) about a man who delivered his goods to three of his servants and traveled to a far country two of them traded with their and made profits while the third went and buried his in the ground. When the time for accounting for the fund came they all rendered their accounts for the activities to their master accounting has been defined as a discipline concerned with identifying analysis forecasting of income and expenditure and recording of financial information” generally , it records in monetary terms the flow of economic value between or within entities.
The term “fund accounting’s often associated with either government accounting or non-profit making entities such as clubs societies and churches “ fund” in accounting may connote different meanings. In private sector it may be used to describe net current asset (current assets less current liabilities) as when used in the statement of sources and application of funds” it may also be used to describe an asset set aside for particular purpose it may also denote cash or securities.
A very fundamental point to note is that a fund is an accounting entity. A successful organization whether private public profit or non profit making needs to keep proper account of cash inflows and outflows. Therefore the importance of fund accounting in public sector including local government cannot be over-stressed local government by their nature an concerned with the provision of prescribed services at local level and carrying out certain local functions thus the accounts kept by the local governments is designed to,.
i.Provide an analysis of the revenue and taxes raised by the local government and;
ii.Provide an analysis of the extent to which such revenue has been used in providing each separate service and sub-service for which the local government is responsible. Therefore the accounting procedures must be directed towards ensuring that maximum possible benefit is obtained from the limited resources it owns.
The essence of the foregoing is that a local government should be able to demonstrate sound stewardship in the conducts of the financial affairs of the community which is serves. Factually the accounting arrangement of the local government are some times described as stewardship accounting this term dues not however imply and different objectives and emphasis form those of a business organization. Nevertheless local governments accounting is as deeply rooted in the double entry system as business accounting. Books of prime entry and ledgers are maintained trial balances are regularly prepared and these lead on the preparation of summary accounts of revenue and expenditure for the appropriate period and a statement of affairs at the end of that period.
In conclusion since the local government is duty bound to report all its financial activities to higher echelons government and the general public the account must be comprehensive enough to enable people to know how public funds entrusted in the hands of the government have been utilized.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover page
Title page
Approval page
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Proposal
Table of content
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Research background
1.1Introduction
1.2Statement of problems
1.3Purpose of the study
1.4Objective of the study
1.5Significance of the study
1.6Scope of the study
1.7Limitations of the study
1.8Definition of terms
1.9Statement of hypothesis
CHAPTER TWO
2.0Literature review
2.1Fund accounting in the local government system an overview
2.2Brief history of local governments in Nigeria
2.3Sources of revenue (funds) for the local government in Nigeria
2.4Functions of local governments in Nigeria
2.5Local government expenditures
2.6Purposes served by local government accounting
2.7Books of account for recoding financial transactions in the local governments
2.8Accounting practices in Nsukka local government of Enugu State
2.9Internal audit unit
2.10Fund (cash) accounting in the local government
CHAPTER THREE
3.0Research methodology and techniques
3.1Population of study
3.2Nsukka local government as a chosen population
3.3Sources of data
3.4Method of investigation
CHAPTER FOUR
5.0Summary conclusion and recommendations
5.1Summary of findings
5.2Conclusion
5.3Recommendation
5.4Areas of further research
Notes
Bibliography
Appendices